


Picture

by Darka3363



Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Bittersweet, Crying, Fluff, Gen, Guilt, Hint of panic, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Nero's only mentioned mind you, Only If You Squint Really Hard, There's still a lot to work out for them, but they're trying to work on it, crossposted from tumblr, no beta we die like men, uugh kinda fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-08-05
Packaged: 2020-03-08 12:22:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18894559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darka3363/pseuds/Darka3363
Summary: He didn't mean to find this.





	1. Picture

He didn't mean to find this.  
  
He just saw that the handle of the drawer was laying on the floor this morning. Under his nose, he started complain about Dante and his less than stellar upkeeping of Devil May Cry, took the handle and opened the drawer to fix it.

Vergil found inside just one thing. A photo.  
The picture was a little dusted, the frame old and cracked at the corners, dark painting falling off under the softest of touches. The photo was a little burnt at the high right corner, but otherwise it was in perfect state. The glass covering the picture has one big crack going through the whole spectrum.  
It was not an insignificant photo. On it, there were Dante and Vergil, laying on the grass before their childhood mansion.

He takes the photo in hand, the handle already forgotten.

He didn't thought Dante would have this photo. Or any photo of them. Of him _._

He was actually pretty convinced the devil hunter tried his best to forgot about the older son of Sparda. The only memento was that old glove (he thinks it's the same one he has cut with his brother's hand, but he was never sure).

He didn't know how long he was standing there, with this frame in his hand, looking at the picture as if he was in some sort of trance.

"So you found it, huh?"

Vergil sharply turned to the source of the noise just to see Dante leaning on the door, with crossed arms on his torso, for once not having a cocky smile at his face.

"I got this after I... After I killed you. It was just too hard for me to look for it before then. It still hurts sometimes just looking at it."

Dante walked to him and took the picture, gently dusting it off with his shirt. There was something really sad in his eyes.  
He looked really tired in this moment.

Vergil isn't sure what he's supposed to do right now. He's still pretty new in the whole "feeling" business (or at least he's trying to convince himself he's new in this).

In the end, he just put his hand on Dante's shoulder. He was standing a little closer to him. Maybe it'll be enough.

And it is enough. 


	2. Performance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dante's performing started when the twins were still young.

Dante's performing started when the twins were still young.

He started, at first to help out Vergil feel better. When the elder cried, he was a trembling, sniffing, loud mess, his eyes and face were always light red and stained by tears. Meanwhile, when Dante cried, he was really quiet. You could tell only by his tears that he's crying at all. There's no trembling, no sniffing, nothing. Just tears.

So when he saw that Vergil started being a little bit ashamed for the way he cried, Dante took it upon himself to make from crying a whole spectacle, but only in insignificant moments, like falling from the stairs.

Dante's not sure if Vergil even knows that he was doing it for him.

Later on, after he seemingly lost his all family in fire, that performing skill was very useful.

Eventually, that skill was made into a mask he was wearing for a long time.

It was just easier, that way. He could pretend he's just an actor, whose role is of a Devil Hunter with a pretty bad life and after the director calls it for the day, he can finally get back home to his family. He could pretend that this life isn't his own at all.

(Even if those long nights and days says otherwise. It was a routine: wake up, eat something, survive, go take care of "pest problems", get back and go to bed. He is doing it since he got Devil May Cry.)

And then came Mallet Island.

Suddenly everything just fall apart in his arms, because of his arms, he killed him, hekilledhim, _hekilledhim_...

He stopped caring. He couldn't bring himself to care about anything, no matter if it was his beloved acting, if it were his two best friends.

He was falling into depression fast.

And suddenly, when he came out of hell and met that kid, who might be his _family_...

Nero might not know it, but because of him Dante finally started healing properly.

He started healing when he was in hell, sure, but it wasn't the same. Nero made him realise that there still might be someone who needs him (even if Nero didn't know he needed Dante).

But with it, his mask of a performer got firmly back into place, just over the mask of indifference. He's got two masks now, two representing extremes of Dante's personality.

And then, Vergil came back from the dead.

To be honest, Dante wasn't so sure if he wanted him back at this point, especially as it seems he _never learnt from his mistakes_ and _once again_ raised a big demonic thing for _power_. How he was going to believe that Vergil changed if he did _exactly the same thing as over twenty years ago_?

Of course he was going to attack him when he finally get back to himself after the split. Vergil _didn't_ change, after all and Dante got finally _sick_ of cleaning his messes. His joker mask cracked. And so he attacked first this time.

When he get to the top of Qliphoth, his performer mask was firmly in place. He was still angry with Vergil — of course he was — but now he's got his emotions under firm control. But even if he was all playful and he even smirked, his eyes were pure steel and ice.

Before they could kill each other, though, Nero appeared in his Devil Trigger and stopped them.

Dante will probably never say it aloud, but he was never so proud of Nero like in this moment.

After that and a small talk, Dante passed out.

When he woke up, Vergil was on his knee and Nero came out victorious. Of course Dante was going to tease Vergil about that. He was still angry with him, but after the smiling thing and Vergil's conclusion of just going to hell to cut this trice cursed tree... Dante started to have a spark of hope.

Maybe it wasn't too late for Vergil...?

He seemed to be more at peace than ever before (except for the time they still had a mother). He wasn't a teenager full of hate and anger anymore. He seemed to be stable.

But it still wasn't enough to make Dante take off his masks or not to be careful around his twin.

That changed after the elder found the picture. He let himself, for the first time in years, to be honest with his brother and lift the mask, just a little.

He saw how Vergil wasn't sure what to do. Eventually, he settled for a hand on younger's arm.

This night Dante couldn't sleep at all. For three hours he was trying, but the gave up and just left his room and go downstairs.

In the middle of stairs, he heard a noise from Vergil's room.

He came back and stood in front of his brother's doors. He knocked twice.

When no answer came, he opened the door and almost fell on his face, seeing tear-stained face of Vergil.

Of course, the elder tried to hide it, but the more he did that, the more he couldn't control himself and just cried harder.

Dante walked to his bed, sat and crushed Vergil against his chest.

Elder twin struggled for a while, but he gave up on that very fast and just let himself be held by Dante.

"I thought... I-I thought you forgot about me, that y-you don't want to know m-me any... Anymore, and I ca-an't even blame you for it and then I found by accident this photo an-and..."

He just let Vergil cry on him and use him as a teddy bear, when in the middle of his rant he hugged Dante so hard as if he was afraid he'll dissappear any moment now.

This night they spent in one room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The more I think about it, the more I like the "3-4-1-anime-2-5" chronology, not because of timeliness because God, it would be a real mess, but from Dante's character development perspective. 
> 
> He started as a performer and continues to be in 3-4, then he starts to come out of his shell in 1, just to be crushed after killing Vergil and that's when he entered Depression.  
> After that, in 5 he would then regress to his old habits from when he was 19.
> 
> Also, I hadn't really checked this chapter, so if there's some mistakes them I'm sorry. But it's 1:30 in the morning for me so I won't be checking it rn.


	3. Parent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Dante dropped on him a bomb that was his son, he really couldn't care less at that moment.

When Dante dropped on him a bomb that was his son, he really couldn't care less at that moment.

So what if Nero is his son? It doesn't matter. All that mattered was to _finally_ win against Dante where it counted.

It was, at the same time, the real true and the worst of lies.

Because even if he really thought that at the first moment, that was just his devil speaking. Somewhere deeper though, his humanity already cared about Nero, even if he thought at the time he's Dante's son.

Both of them has a similar character, all in all. Both have big hearts and even if he's just getting to know Nero, he probably is just a teddy bear in soul, just like Dante.

He won't say anything about his looks, because it is inevitable that they looks fairly similar, but Vergil can see the smallest of details that are pure him in Nero, not Dante.

When he sees them interact though, he thinks about how Dante is behaving much more like a father to Nero and how Vergil is very much lacking in it.

Don't get him wrong, Vergil tries, but it's just so _hard_ , especially when it has been years since someone treated him with any sort of kindness.

(He still sees in his nightmares how Dante tried to reach for him when Vergil was falling into hell, how his nonchalant mask had broke and a raw emotion was inscribed on his face, something truly desperate, and Vergil, the fool, _dared_ to slash his extended hand, this peace offering and fell fell _fell_.

What came next were years of slavery and all of that happens because he was just so prideful.

It was his fault, his fault, hisfaulthishis _his_ —)

For years, _decades_ , the only person who was still alive at this point, whom he loved more than anything else, whom he hurt so much (for whom he tried to gain the power but somewhere that got corrupted and turned into an ugly thing, he just wanted to be powerful enough so neither Vergil nor his brother has to suffer from lost of family ever again), for whom he would burn this world to ashes, was Dante. And suddenly, he has to learn how to love two people, his brother and his son. It wasn't just Dante anymore.

And wasn't it a turning point?

_It wasn't just Dante anymore._

And neither Dante nor Nero needs him with unbelievable power to protect them from the world. They can protect themselves just fine, as evident in how they both are still alive.

Vergil is very unsure what he should do with this information.

They don't need him.

And yet, _and yet_ Dante has this photo of them, and yet Nero tries to spend his free time with Vergil, getting to know him. And yet Dante still looks at him as if he can't quite believe he's still here, and yet he's including Vergil in his life, be it jobs or just mundane tasks, or watching TV, or fighting, or even something so stupid as eating a meal together.

And yet they took him to Fortuna to introduce him to Kyrie and three boys that are living with them.

After years of solitude and not trusting anyone, after years of slavery and being a mere puppet, it was so weird ( ~~threatning~~ ) to be suddenly surrounded by people who aren't going to kill him or manipulate him, or hurt him, or use him in any way.

"Is that book really so boring? You haven't turned the page in the last 10 minutes."

Vergil was taken out of his musing by Dante, who is looking just as nonchalant as ever, but he can see concern in his eyes.

"Horrid, really. It seems Charles Kingsley is just not for me."

"If you say so. What do you want for dinner today?"

How trite. And somehow, it is _everything_ for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was inspired by dictionary.


	4. Pizza

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As much as Dante loves pizza, he doesn't have the kind of money to afford it everyday and it became very evident very fast that he's got to learn how to cook.

As much as Dante loves pizza, he doesn't have the kind of money to afford it everyday and it became very evident very fast that he's got to learn how to cook. It doesn't matter if his cooking skills are up to par with students and not, say, Gordon Ramsay, but hey, what works works, and students know how to cook _cheaply_.

And it might be surprising, but between him, Lady and Trish, he's the best at cooking. Trish never really was interested in this and the less is said about Lady's cooking skills the better. As much as she can make demons regret they came to this world, she can't cook to save her life.

So after a few days of takeout, Dante stated enough is enough, time for a grocery run and make some food, because takeouts are _expensive_ and the money don't really grows on trees for him to begin with.

Fast-forward to the next day. Dante's in the kitchen, getting the pan out, pour some oil to it and in the meanwhile the oil was heating up, he get the eggs and some bacon from the fridge.

It was still the beginning of the month, so they can afford such good breakfast. At the end of month they'll be eating only sandwiches and God help Vergil if he starts to complain—

When Dante just got the last of the meat from the pan to one of the plates, his older brother decided it's a good time to show up.

He looks like a death, but more in "I haven't slept because I was reading 'till Witching Hour" way than "I haven't slept because of nightmares" way. Which is good. Very good even. He preferres it when Vergil can't sleep because he has to read this book right now than because his mind is working against him today.

Vergil yawns, stretches himself and then looks at Dante. If the elder twin had less control over himself, Dante mused, his jaw would probably hit the floor right now.

"You can cook?"

Now Dante just feels offended by it. What type of question that even is?

"Is that a problem?"

"No, no, I'm just surprised. I don't know why."

Vergil is so cute when he's embarrassed, Dante decided. Just like Nero, come to think of it. But kid got better at hiding his embarrassment and started taking all Dante throws at him in stride, which is fun too in its own way, but that also means his  ~~victim~~  favourite person to embarrass with sugary words is now immune to any kind of teasing, which is a shame.

God bless unsuspecting anything Vergil, he'll be taking advantage of it for _weeks_.

"And, well... It's been decades since I've eaten anything homemade" — said Vergil, scratching his neck.

Now this is just sad.

Dante put plates with food onto the table, went to Vergil, took him by shoulders and seated him on the closest chair.

"Then you better get used to it, because I'll probably be cooking for the rest of the month."

Dante took small note to learn more recipes that aren't just "Student Handbook On How To Eat Cheaply", because he'll be damned if he lets Vergil eat only simple dishes. He'll do it for him, no problem.

He'll might never achieve Gordon Ramsay level of cooking, but hey, if Vergil will like it, then that will be enough for Dante.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was literally thinking about fast foods when the idea came to me. And also inspired by a shirt conversation about it on Discord.


	5. Passion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vergil is going stir crazy

Vergil is going stir crazy.

Dante has gone to work, end of month approaching rapidly, so now he's taking any job he can get his hands on (even the boring ones), which means his usual sparring partner is not here. Library was closed for renovations. The whole office part of the shop was as clean as he could make it. But even that went fairly fast. There was nothing worthwhile in TV.

Vergil is _bored_.

Maybe it was finally time to get to see what's in the boxes Dante took put from the room that is now his bedroom. To segregate it. It has nothing to do with how curious Vergil is about what his brother even has in them, he swears.

He's gone upstairs and got to those packages.

He takes one of those boxes and sit down on the floor. Vergil then hesitates a little, a hand hovering above the first box on his laps.

Should he do that?

The elder frown, thinking about how Dante was often taking his things without asking when they were younger and opened up the box.

There were books. A lot of them.

Dante _can_ read anything that isn't his magazines?

(He's aware that most of those mags are just hand-me-downs from Trish, but that doesn't matter now).

It seems that this box is full of books on human first aid and biology.

The second one was full of documents and after a closer inspection, a lot of them was about different kind of demons and hell.

The third one has a lot of books about fighting, all of them where labeled as "hand to hand, eastern fighting, Royal Guard inspiration".

Most of next boxes had similar labeling system, full of books from which Dante got inspiration not only for Royal Guard, but for his other styles too. One box was full of books and documents about firearms. Other one has a full list of all Devil Arms Dante acquired over the years, complete with sketches and instructions how to use them. The next one was all about runes and protective rituals.

Vergil has to admit, no matter how reluctant he's to do that, but he's impressed. Dante did a very good job with keeping them sorted.

The last box remained for him to see. Seeing as the rest of them was full of books which he'll definitely read in his spare time, he was rather eager to open this ~~Christmas~~ box.

It was full of journals.

First one Vergil takes had a dark cover and was full of additional loose papers. Some of them got out of the notebook.

His interest picks up, so the older twin opens the first page.

It was titled "Royal Guard Style".

Next pages has some sketches of poses and their description.

This is full of Dante's notes on Royal Guard, Vergil realised. Full of training exercises, descriptions, how this whole style works.

And how absolutely dangerous for the user it can be.

Perfect timing? Perfect control over self's body is highly advised?

Vergil takes one of the loose pages and starts to read it:

"I was finally able to use some of RG blocks and moves with DT power instead of Rage after some experiments and blowing up random places in the outskirts of the city. It took me months to work it out and let it be said it's _not easy_ —"

Vergil puts away the page back to the journal. He really doesn't want to read how Dante was able to do that, what the hell is that "Rage" and how much he harmed himself while doing those experiments.

He finds later his brother's notes for his other styles, for some _new_ styles that aren't as heavely made specifically for younger twin, but for general people. Tall people, small people, fast, slow, it didn't matter, Dante has a style for everyone, it seems. There were even some made for specific people, he saw the one inspired by Nero's fighting style. Dante has not only written down how it looks like in a base form, but also made a lot of improvements to the style, like adding some moves that seemed to be a natural continuation of movement, taking advantage of momentum and the force behind the "skill combo", as Dante has written it down.

Vergil thought it makes sense, that Dante never stopped at making four styles. It seems like some kind of not as much a hobby, but rather a passion for making new fighting styles.

He finally got to the last journal, titled "Dark Slayer Style".

His fighting style. Dissected, analysed, he could even see some ideas to _improve_ it. And isn't it a scary thought? Especially as it looks like those notes are old, judging from how the pages smell.

It seems Dante is so easy to misjudge when you're just looking at his surface and base all of your informations from twenty and thirty years back. Sometimes Vergil feels as if he's getting to know an entirely different person than his younger brother.

And isn't it sad? He should know the younger twin like the back of his hand, or at least not get deceived by what he sees that easly. It's not a good feeling to realise that.

It also seems there's a lot more to Dante's story since they were nineteen on top of Temen-Ni-Gru than he ever has given credit.

He put back the journals and boxes on their place and went downstairs. Vergil looked at the clock, which tells him he was looking throught boxes for three hours now.

Just when he sat down with a book (from one of the boxes), Dante came through the doors, whistling under his nose.

"Had a good hunt?"

"It was pretty boring, but not that bad. At least we won't die from starvation anytime soon!"

Maybe it's time to look at his brother not through the glasses of nostalgia, but rather with a fresh view. Like getting to know him, but having already a lot of information about him.

Like a new begining.

New begining. That's a nice thought, Vergil decided, when he starts reading. Nice thought indeed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp. It was a tiring week of doing advanced math. At least it was fun.


	6. Pattern

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First Friday of the month is always their drinking day.

It was first Friday of the month and like always, it's a drink day for Dante and Lady. 

Neither of them is allowed by Trish to drink hard alcohol alone in the sanctuary of their respective homes, so they just started drinking together. Trish only signed at that, but at least they're wallowing in their sorrows together and at the end they even talk about those bizzare emotions, even if it's influenced by alcohol. 

"Say, Dante..." starts Lady, taking another swing of her favourite vodka."How did you feel when Vergil came back? For real?"

Dante signs and starts playing with his own vodka bottle. 

"Because if Arkham came back... Maybe I wouldn't have killed him, but maiming is the other thing. And I would throw him to hell. The further away he is from me, the better. As much as I wouldn't done the same thing like twenty some years ago, I still hate that bastard."

"Yeah..."

Dante drinks some of his beverage and answers:

"At first, I was glad. Happy even, because, y'know, I actually love my brother, but when I heard what he planned... I was so fucking angry. He was supposed to be the smarter one of both of us right? And yet that idiot did the exact same thing as Temen-Ni-Gru, as if he didn't learn at all. And that whole shtick about splitting yourself in half... If my coping mechanism are unhealthy, his are downright suicidal."

Dante looks at his mother's portrait and continues:

"I thought I'm ready to kill him again, on top of Qliphoth, you know? And I was. I was so ready to do it again, but to be honest, I didn't expect to come out alive from that, either because Vergil would kill me at the same time, or I would just end it all. I wouldn't be able to live through that nightmare once more Lady."

"But you're here still and Vergil is here too."

"Yeah, we are..."

They take another sip and take pizza in hands. 

"We wouldn't be if Nero didn't stop us, probably. The kid is as stubborn and reckless as his old man."

"Nero's a fine brat, I'll give him that. And being reckless runs in your family."

"And hard drinking runs in yours?"

"You betcha your fine ass it is."

"Lady and compliments? World is ending."

"I will end you if you don't stop it."

"That's more like the woman I know."

"You're an ass."

"A fine ass."

"Fucking hell. Dante, don't ever change from that smartass you are."

"Why are we even discussing my ass anyway?"

"No idea. Say, have Nero finally proposed to Kyrie?"

"Nah, he's still in a panic phase of 'I'm not good enough, what if she won't like the ring?' yada yada, yada..."

It was a good drinking day, in Dante's opinion.

**Author's Note:**

> I think I'll make a series out of this, where they work out their issues, but I'm not promising anything.
> 
> Edit: Yes, it'll definitely be a series now. I'll be just updating everything here.


End file.
